By Olga Smith
What is the best way to learn English pronunciation?
2 July 2020
In my experience, the most useful strategy to learn English pronunciation is to repeat after the model pronunciation using the correct position of tongue, lips and jaw for each English sound. Later work on fluency and articulation.
First, record yourself in order to see how you sound to others. Then, identify your mistakes and correct them, practise the correct form, and then record yourself again. Repetition is the key. The reason why we struggle with English punctuation is two-fold:
1. Not all English sounds exist in our native language and we are not sure how to produce them correctly.
2. Our speech organs are trained for our native language from our childhood. When we start speaking in English, we don’t place our tongue, lips and jaw as native English speakers do.
When I recorded myself in 2004 I was shocked to realize that even I could not understand what I was saying. Then, I started to look for a speech or elocution tutor who could explain how to position my tongue, lips and jaw for English sounds. I was lucky to find a top tutor in London and I fell in love with her method. We were practising accent reduction with funny sentences and verses, it was very enjoyable and extremely effective.
Later, together with Linda, my tutor, we have published 5 books to master English punctuation which became international bestsellers. In 2009 one of the readers of our books, who was a software developer contacted me and said that he absolutely loved our books and that they really worked for him. He offered to create apps based on our books and we have published 8 apps for accent reduction to date.
Here are more difficulties with English pronunciation you might have experienced:
1. Not all English vowels and diphthongs exist in other languages, you might struggle to pronounce them correctly.
2. There are 5 long and 7 short vowels In English. Long vowels do not exist in all languages and there is a tendency to shorten them. This can create a problem for others to understand what you are saying.
3. Bad articulation, in other words, weak consonants or incorrectly pronounced consonants.
4. Your intonation could be very difficult to follow, you might break phrases and make pauses in the wrong places.
In order to master English pronunciation you need to :
Learn and practice how to pronounce English sounds using received pronunciation (RP). RP is also sometimes called the Queen’s English, Oxford English or BBC English.
Practice articulation exercises to make your consonants clear and crisp.
Learn to speak in phrases rather than in separate words; knowing how to link words together correctly.
Learn patterns of English intonation and vocal techniques.
The fastest way to get rid of your accent is to do your speech analysis and then download our app: Get rid of your Accent UK1.
To get the best results with these apps, download the video courses Get Rid of your Accent Part 1 and Get rid of your Accent Part 2.
Benefits of speech analysis:
During the speech analysis, we will do simple exercises to correct your English sounds. You will immediately see results from our method.
You will receive a written copy of the analysis with a list of English sounds to practise with corresponding lessons from our accent apps, books and video courses.
You will save time as speech analysis helps you to focus on particular sounds and other speech patterns and practise them with our accent apps, books and video courses.
Speech analysis will help you decide whether it would be better for you to join a mini group on our accent reduction course or have individual elocution lessons.
You will get great results with a plan tailored to your own needs, helping you to focus on the English sounds that will create a good accent.
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